As I posted on Facebook the other day, my step son, Michael< and I took Linda into the e.r. because she had a fever, was acting very confused and could hardly walked. She was diagnosed with dehydration and low oxygen in her blood, admitted for the night and later pneumonia was added to the diagnosis. They said in a few days everything would balance out and she would be ok.

Tuesday morning I was there til noon then went to do some errands. when I left she was still kind of confused and weak but doing better. I returned about 3:30 to find her accusing 2 rn's and a cna of trying to run a scam on her. She said they had injected her with illegal drugs while she slept. One RN said she had been injected in the abdomen with heparin and had also received a sedative through her iv. I asked what heparin was and she said it was a blood thinner to keep clots from forming in her legs. I said she wasn't supposed to receive that kind of stuff as she had bleeding ulcers some years back and I would like to talk to the doctor about it.

I then sat with Linda and said there was nobody running a scam and that I would talk to her doctor. She then decided that I was backing "them" up over her and asked why I was trying to kill her. Things very quickly went downhill from there as she came more and more agitated and convinced that we were all trying to kill her and the hospital was going to take away our house. I tried my best to calm her down and convince her that there was no conspiracy but it just kept getting worse as she asked me how dare I do this to her and more along those lines.

By about 8 pm, after she ate a little dinner (convinced that it was drugged) she settled down some and began to drift off to sleep. Exhausted, I decided to go home and have some dinner. I talked to Michael for a while about what had happened and he researched heparin on line and saw that there was a possibility of reaction with nicotine. The same dr who ordered the heparin had also ordered a nicotine patch, which Linda has been using as she tries to quit smoking. So we decided we would talk to her dr about it in the morning. I then took a valium and tried to get some sleep, but about 2:30 am the phone rang and it was the nurse telling me that Linda wanted to talk to me so he switched me over and Linda asked why I was home in bed and not there loving her. I told her I would be right over and Michael and I hurried to the hospital.

When we got to Linda's room, her hands were restrained and she was thrashing and kicking out at people (I later learned that she had kicked a male nurse very close to the groin but that he was ok). She then started yelling at Michael and myself about why were we killing her and actually spit at me and then spit in her son's face. We stayed until about 6am and the situation remained out of control so I thought maybe it would be best if we leave and she might settle down. It also turned out that they had given another injection of heperin so now I was really thinking this is a bit much for a coincidence.

Later Wednesday I went over and she was still glaring at me with hatred and demanded why am I killing her and she was obviously hallucinating now as she thought she saw someone in the hospital killing 1000's of finches and that there were bird droppings dripping from the monitor near her bed. The dr who was treating her is from an eastern European nation and has a very heavy accent and speaks very fast. When I finally got to talk to her on the phone and asked her what the hell is going on and did she think that the heperan had anything to do with it as it seemed that this situation had started soon after that being given. She dismissed it and said it was nothing to do with that or the nicotine patch. She was almost impossible to under stand over the phone so we agreed to meet later in the day when she came on her rounds. When we did meet it was still very difficult communicating with her but she said that what was happening with Linda was common for patients with low oxygen saturation. I said it would have been nice to know that ahead of time and that there had been a number of rn's standing around like they had never seen this before. Communicating with this dr was so difficult that I pretty much gave up in frustration and went and sat with Linda, listening to her ravings until she finally fell asleep.

During that time her nurse came in and tried to give her an anti psychotic pill which she refused to take. Ok, I realize that this is turning into a novel but I really have no one to vent to. Thursday morning the dr called our house and I again asked her about the possibility of a drug reaction and she said she had removed the nicotine patch. I asked if she coudn't have a day off from the heperin as there seemed to me that there was a connection. She said that would be dangerous as Linda might get a blood clot in her leg. I said she hadn't really been bed ridden that long and was moving her legs around quite a bit. Again, I would like to give her a break from this stuff and see if she improves. Michael then asked if he could speak to the dr so I gave him the phone and he basically expressed the same concerns that I just had. She then got rude with him asking about his medical credentials and finished up with "ok I will take her off the drug and she will probably get a blood clot in her leg and die, and it will be your fault".

Well, we headed back to the hospital and told the charge nurse that we wanted another doctor to come see Linda and told her what the current doctor had said on the phone. We went to Linda's room and she was still very agitated and convinced that we were killing. The patient monitor who was keeping an eye on Linda said she had been calmer earlier so we thought our presence might be counter productive and left.

This morning, Friday, we went back to find Linda much calmer. We were hoping to catch the new dr on his rounds but he had already been there. The nurse also said that Linda had finally agreed to take the anti psychotic drug during the night. We met the new dr about noon and he said he had discontinued the heparin and was keeping her on the anti psychotic. Linda was sleeping much of this time so after talking to the dr we came home as Michael has been felling sick and lack of sleep was really getting him down. He's sleeping now and I will soon be headed back to the hospital to see how Linda's doing now.

To anyone who actually managed to read through this whole thing, many thanks and please keep positive thoughts in your heart for Linda.